10 Months

Rachel is 10 months old today. I can't believe that she is going to be 1 in two months. I look forward to my weekends even more these days because I know that I can spend an entire 2 days straight with her.

I have been trying to get a tooth picture for weeks now and I finally did it this morning. My camera is slow and so if she is showing me, by the time it takes the picture, she moves...or by the time I go and get the camera, she is decides she doesn't want to show me anymore. She has two teeth on the bottom and still nothing on top. She has been biting things really hard these days, so I think more may be coming soon.

One of her new things is clapping for herself. If she does something that she is proud of, she claps and says "Yeaaaaaaaaah!" When we clap with her, it makes her even more happy. It is so adorable.

Yep...standing on her own.

She pulls herself up on everything. She will let go pretty often. As long as she pays attention to what she needs to grab back onto, she is fine. If she forgets that she is standing and then remembers, she will probably fall. Often, when she is standing on her own, she claps for herself and then grabs back on. What a big girl!

She puts her hands on her hips a lot. A lot of the time when she does it is when we have just taken something away that she shouldn't have and she is pouting. She definitely has a lot of character.

She got a cookie (teething biscuit) tonight after dinner. It has become really hard to feed her baby food these past couple of weeks. All she wants is grown up food. Too bad for her that I stocked up and she will have to keep eating it until it is all gone. As she would open her mouth to take a bite of her cookie, I would stuff in a bite of sweet potatoes. It was the only way I could get her to finish her dinner tonight. While I cooked dinner, Tim got to clean her hands. I am not sure who won on that trade-off, but I think she still has cookie in her eye-brows!

42 Weeks/9 Month Doctors Appointment

Rachel is 42 weeks today and had her 9 month Doctors appointment this afternoon. She only had to get one shot today and was such a good girl about it. She weighs 19 lb 3 oz (50th percentile), is 28 inches long (50th percentile) and her head is 45 cm (25th percentile). I had the doctor check out her ear and said that the antibiotics is working and she could barely see any sign of infection. She still has quite a cough and runny nose, but it is good to hear that the ear infection is just about gone.

This is Rachel glaring at the Chargers yesterday while drinking her bottle.

She took a break from the game to eat some puffs. I think she was saving this one for later.

This is a 42 weeks photo. She has a small bruise on her forehead. I am not sure if it is from a fall or from banging her head into things. She will repeatedly bump her head into things and I am not sure why. I think she is testing them out to see if they move or to see how they feel.

Walking...

Rachel went from sitting to crawling to standing to walking really quickly. Each of these things she did for about a week and then moved on to the next very fast. She is walking! Well, kind of. She walks assisted by a toy. She does it at our house with her train and this was taken at Tim's parents house today.

She sits down really well from standing most of the time as you see in this video.

She walked all the way across the room and would have gone farther but ran out of space.

Christmas at my Brothers

We celebrated our 5th and final Christmas last Sunday at my brothers house. It was a celebration with all of my siblings.

First, we celebrated Kyle's birthday from October. Poor kid had to wait so long for his gift from Brianne and I. He was super stoked about his rc car though. I don't know if you can tell by this picture or not, but Allison had a rash on her face. Everybody thought is was an allergy. I got a call the following day from June and she told me that Allison had Scarlet Fever and Strep throat and we had all touched her and played with her. None of us has caught it yet...but is has an incubation period of 3-8 days. If we don't have it by tomorrow, we should be in the clear. (I think we are good anyways.) Rachel is already on antibiotics because we all got this nasty cold/cough and she got an ear infection with it, so she started antibiotics on Thursday.

The cats really enjoyed the box.

Opening gifts.

Rachel crawled around with these bows on her head for hours. It was really cute.

She needed a little help from her cousin to open her gift. He was happy to oblige.

Seeing Nana Off

After Emma's party, we went back to Tim's parents house to see his nana off. She had been here from New Zealand for about 7 weeks and was headed home that night.

Nana was a great help with Rachel. She helped with Rachel's dinner just before she left.

She crawled around and chased Rachel on the floor. Rachel loved playing with her and she always brought a smile to Rachel's face.

Nana with her grandsons.

4 generations!

Nana, we had a great time with you and hope you can come back and visit soon!

Emma's First Birthday Party

We went to Emma's 1st birthday party last Saturday the 9th. Doug and Marie put on an amazing party (let's be honest it was probably mostly Marie for those of you who know her) for their daughter's first birthday. They had it at a ranch in Poway. Here are some pictures from the day.

Tim and Rachel at the pond.

Tim and Rachel visiting the donkey. I think it is the first donkey Rachel has met.

If you look closely, there is a pig coming out of the house and peacocks hanging out with the pig.

Rachel crawling through the tube. She would only go a short way and then wasn't sure about it so she would back out.

Rachel absolutely loved the ball pit! I think it was her favorite part of the day. She is playing with Adam Canfield who is 6 months old.

Emma and her very own cake. When everybody was singing to her she got shy.

Digging in!

When Marie was opening Emma's gifts, Emma lost interest pretty quickly. She was walking around most of the time. Rachel was more than willing to help with all of the paper.

All of the kiddos were very interested in what Emma was getting.

Dancing Girl

I got Rachel this train for Christmas and she loves riding around on it. She also loves the music. She dances (or bounces) to the beat. She has always loved music. I showed her this video on my computer and she had to dance again. She just can't help herself.

New Years

We celebrated New Years Eve at Tim's parents house playing games. Rachel went to bed before 8 and did not make it until midnight. I was so happy that she went to bed on her own in the pack-n-play and slept in it all night. Over vacation, I got her to start going to bed on her own in her crib and she is doing so well. She only cries for a minute or two most nights. Last night, she did not cry at all! It is giving Tim and I an hour or two to hang out together every night which has been really nice.

Goodbye 2009!

Hello 2010!

(You can't see it because of the bib, but the front of her shirt says Hello.)

Christmas at Dads

We celebrated Christmas with at my dad's house this Saturday. It was nice to get together and see everybody.

All of the cousins opening their gifts.

The cousins posing for a picture.

My dad gave everybody some chocolate except for Rachel. He gave her some teething biscuits instead. This was her first time eating teething biscuits and she loved them.

But they sure are messy!

Rachel and Santa

Rachel visited Santa a couple of days before Christmas. We got there just before 4pm and his dinner time was at 4:30. We got in line and weren't sure if she was going to make it in time. As we neared the front of the line, one of the elves told us that the people in front of us were going to be the last ones before his dinner time. We stayed in line and just barely made it. By then, Santa was a bit cranky. I think he was really hungry. We didn't have very much time to get Rachel to smile, so this is what we got. She wasn't upset or anything, she just wasn't sure what was going on. I was just happy that we made it in time before his dinner.

9 Months

Rachel turned 9 months on December 30th. The day before her 9 month birthday was a big day for her. She got her second tooth (which is on the bottom and right next to the first one) and she officially began crawling.

When she woke up, she took some time to read a book. She loves this book. It play music and she loves to turn the pages. Thanks Grandma Hunter, it is currently her favorite toy!

She ate lunch in her high chair like a big girl.

So happy as always.

So she likes to rub her fist across her mouth and make noises which she is doing here.

Drinking from her sippy cup.

Since she began crawling, we had to put up a gate to the kitchen. She went straight for the cat food. The problem with the gate is that kitten isn't quite sure how to get over it.

One of Rachel's new things is putting her hands on her hips. I LOVE this picture.

She likes to ride her new train. She even knows how to hold on.

Zoo

We took Rachel to the Zoo on December 29th to see the lights before they were gone. I was a bit disappointed because I didn't think they were as good as they were when they were at the Wild Animal Park. We had a good time though.

Rachel is working on her new crawling skills.